Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wireline voice telephony. More specifically, the present invention discloses an Access Gateway Management System (AGMS) that enables telephone operating companies to transition to “Voice over the Internet Protocol” (VoIP) networking while preserving the operational support infrastructure that is currently in place.
Statement of the Problem
In the applications considered herein, VoIP Line Access Gateways (LAGs) are used to terminate subscriber lines exiting directly from a telephone company wire center as well as the digital signals (nominally T1s) that support access systems (normally remote) that provide telephone service to additional subscribers. The use of VoIP allows telephone companies to rationalize all of their data, wireline voice, and wireless services into a single IP network, this transition is presently in its infancy.
Currently, directly-terminated subscriber lines and access systems are supported by legacy voice switches and in the larger telephone operating companies, particularly in the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), these legacy switching systems and the ancillary systems that provide telephone services to the subscribers associated with that switch and wire center are managed, tested, maintained, inventoried, and trouble-shot by means of a complex and inter-related set of Operational Support Systems (OSSs). These OSSs allow “flow through” of service orders to provision and test all of the facilities and equipment in an automated fashion and generating specific work orders for craft where necessary.
These OSSs and the wire centers that they manage have strong geographic ties which are both historical and very necessary to supporting a wireline network. This is in contradistinction to IP network elements which have functional properties such as routers, soft switches, and user agents but little sense of geographical presence. Herein lies a problem in the art.